Rise of a Lonely City: From Exiled Prince to Ruler of the Nine Provinces

The darkest hour before dawn has passed, and the eastern sky is beginning to lighten with the first hint of white.

The sentry in the Northern Yan camp strained his sleepy eyes, when suddenly he heard the deep, thunderous sound of war drums coming from the horizon!

"Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!"

The drumbeats grew louder and more frequent, like the heartbeat of an ancient behemoth awakening, causing the earth to tremble slightly. Then came the long, mournful sound of a horn, shattering the morning's tranquility.

"Enemy attack—! The Hanyuan Army has attacked—!" The shrill alarm instantly resounded throughout the Northern Yan camp.

Countless Northern Yan soldiers scrambled out of their tents in a panic, grabbed their weapons, and rushed to their respective defensive positions amidst the officers' shouts and curses.

They saw that, under the gradually brightening sky, the massive army formation of the Hanyuan Army, like a steel behemoth emerging from the darkness, was slowly advancing forward.

At the forefront were densely packed swordsmen, shield bearers, and spearmen, followed by a formidable square of crossbowmen. On either flank of the formation stood silent, solemn cavalry.

But what suffocated and terrified the Northern Yan army the most was the steel jungle in the center of the Hanyuan army formation, which gleamed with a cold metallic light in the morning light!

A full three thousand riders! Both men and horses were clad in heavy armor!

The knight held a long spear and had a sword at his waist. His warhorse was fully equipped with a mask, neck guard, chest armor, body armor, and back guard, reflecting a cold, dark light in the dim light, like a series of moving steel sculptures.

They were arranged in a tight wedge formation, and at the very front, a black banner with the character "Xiao" on a gold border fluttered in the morning breeze.

Under his command, Xiao Chen was clad in black armor, his face covered by a ferocious beast-face helmet, revealing only a pair of eyes that were as calm as an abyss, yet seemed to burn with fierce flames.

He didn't speak, but slowly raised the lance in his hand.

"Great wind! Great wind! Great wind!" The 20,000 soldiers of Hanyuan roared in unison, their voices like a tidal wave, soaring into the sky and instantly overwhelming the panic in the Northern Yan camp.

"Release!" Wang Dashan waved his command flag.

Dozens of catapults and all the ballistae behind the Hanyuan army formation roared first!

Stones, fire pots, and giant crossbow bolts rained down on the fences, watchtowers, and tents of the Northern Yan camp, like hail and fire!

At the same time, the crossbowmen phalanx steadily moved forward. Once they were within range, the familiar, soul-chilling hum of the volley of arrows rang out once more, and the rain of arrows, like a curtain of death, covered the Northern Yan garrison at the front of the camp!

"Hold on! Archers, retaliate! Spearmen, advance!" Murong Chui, clad in armor and wielding a sword, shouted hoarsely as he commanded from the center of the army.

He knew this was a battle for survival!

However, the Han Yuan Army's attacks were not limited to long-range strikes.

Under the cover of arrows and catapults, the Hanyuan infantry pushed the trench bridge carts, quickly filling the trench in front of the camp, and carrying ladders, surged towards the wooden palisade like a tide.

Even more terrifying, the once-silent heavy cavalry began to move.

It started as a slow walk, then a jog, and finally turned into an earth-shattering charge!

Three thousand cavalrymen, their hooves pounding the earth with a thunderous roar, caused the entire ground to tremble.

Ignoring the sporadic arrows and the barricades and antlers in front of them, they charged fiercely toward the most heavily fortified central gate of the Northern Yan camp, like an unstoppable wall of steel or a red-hot blade!

"Hold your ground! Spear formation! Shield wall!" The Northern Yan officer guarding the gate turned pale and shouted hoarsely.

The Northern Yan heavy infantry at the front raised their massive shields, while the spearmen in the rear extended their spears through the gaps in the shields, attempting to form an ironclad defensive line. This was originally an effective tactic for dealing with cavalry charges.

However, they were facing the Frost Abyss Heavy Cavalry!

They are heavily armored cavalry, fully clad in armor, with riders and horses in perfect gear, maintaining ultimate stability with specially made high-bridged saddles and double stirrups! They are war machines carrying terrifying kinetic energy!

"boom--!!!"

The torrent of steel crashed violently against the dikes made of wood, stone, and flesh.

There was no stalemate, no pause.

The moment they made contact, the giant shields of Northern Yan at the very front were torn apart and shattered like pieces of paper!

Soldiers wielding long spears were either smashed to pieces by the enormous impact and sent flying backward, or trampled into a bloody pulp by the heavy horses!

The lances of the Cold Abyss Heavy Cavalry, like the scythe of death, easily pierced through leather armor, sending enemies flying! Their horizontal swords slashed at close range, sending up sprays of blood!

The defensive line at the gate shattered instantly under the first wave of heavy cavalry attack, like glass struck by a heavy hammer!

The steel torrent surged into the camp without hindrance, rolling forward along the main road towards Murong Chui's banner, crushing everything that dared to stand in its way!

"Monsters! They're monsters made of iron!"

"It's unstoppable! Absolutely unstoppable!"

The last vestiges of courage of the Northern Yan army completely crumbled in the face of this unprecedented steel monster.

The heavy cavalry charge not only broke through the lines but also completely crushed their will to resist.

On both flanks, Han Yuan's infantry also took the opportunity to break through several fences and storm into the camp.

Chaos erupted within the camp, with flames raging and cries filling the air.

"General! Run! The camp has fallen! We can't hold them off!"

The guards risked their lives to protect Murong Chui, whose eyes were bloodshot and who was on the verge of madness, and helped him retreat to the rear camp.

The army collapsed like a house of cards; the central army was broken, and the heavy cavalry ran rampant. Even if Murong Chui had extraordinary abilities, he was powerless to reverse the situation.

The fierce battle lasted for half a day.

By the time the sun reached its zenith, the Northern Yan camp had largely fallen under the control of the Han Yuan army.

The camp was littered with corpses and rivers of blood, with discarded armor, flags, and burning tents everywhere.

Under the desperate protection of his personal guards, Murong Chui led only ten thousand remaining soldiers, abandoning all baggage, provisions, and even some wounded soldiers, and fled desperately from the rear camp toward the northern border.

Wang Dashan wanted to lead his cavalry in pursuit, but Xiao Chen stopped him.

"Do not pursue a defeated enemy; beware of ambushes. Clean up the battlefield, take stock of the spoils, and treat the wounded."

In this battle, Han Yuan's army killed more than 8,000 Northern Yan soldiers, captured more than 3,000, and seized countless weapons, horses, provisions, and flags.

The 60,000-strong main force of Murong Chui, the General of the Northern Yan, who relied on to invade the south, suffered more than two-thirds of its losses in the three battles of burning grain at Heifeng Pass, ambushing at Yingzui Cliff, and the decisive battle at the main camp, and was completely devastated.

The price paid by Han Yuanjun was negligible.

Xiao Chen stood on his horse at the still-smoking gate of the Northern Yan central army camp, with the tattered "Murong" banner beneath his feet.

He removed his beast-face helmet, gazed in the direction of Murong Chui's retreat to the north, then turned back to look at the Han Yuan soldiers standing solemnly behind him, their armor stained with blood, the black royal banner fluttering high in the smoke of battle.

"Issue the order to spread the news of the victory and Murong Chui's defeat far and wide. Let Northern Yan, the grasslands, and the whole world know—" Xiao Chen's voice was calm, yet carried a resounding clang like metal clashing, clearly reaching the ears of every soldier:

"Those who offend my Cold Abyss, though far away, shall be punished!"

"Victory! Victory! Victory, Your Highness!"

The cheers, as loud as a mountain and as vast as the ocean, resounded through the sky, announcing the rise of Han Yuan and the complete failure of Bei Yan's invasion of the south.

At this moment, the sky over the northern border was completely dyed with a new color by the black royal banner.